Wet Bag Cattle

[CSimmons]

Anyone have any experience purchasing young, wet bag cattle that are a little thin, putting them on feed, getting their nutrition right etc and then getting them bred?

How were your conception rates?

What did the cattle receive once you got them home and worked them?

 

[SBMF 2015]

There's a fine line between between recoverable and two far gone.
I bought ten 3 year old pairs one time. They were all rail skinny, basically starved.
Half of them I never could get to gain weight. Talked to my vet at the time and she said that If they have been malnourished for so long it changes the way their liver absorbs Vitamin A.
The other five sorta straightened out, got bred back. Had to C-section one the following spring and she died.
The rest were all culled by six years old. Not something I will try again, but I could have just picked a bad group. I think that guy sold 80 that day and they all looked about the same.

 

[bird dog]

I have bought a few from time to time. Usually they are from a herd sell out situation where someone passed or was unable to properly care for their animals for health reasons.
They always bred back fine for me. Sometimes they are short bred, just not far enough along for the vet to call them.

As far as what I do to them. A full round of vacs that include a lepto shot, a good worming, some vitamins and a shot of muti-min. I put them on free choice good hay for a few days to kind a let them settle in and turn them out. Its always a risk they may give your herd a disease but that's true with any animal brought in.

I bought one young heifer a couple years ago that weighed 625 lbs and had a 175 lb calf on her. So thin you could see through her. She was giving everything she had to he calf. I kept her off the bull for three months to regain some condition and she bred back about a month after that. She weighs about 1100 today and has become so gentle as to be a nuisance. She wants to hang out with the dogs. She is now on her third calf. Like old one and done cows they seem to really appreciate someone taking care of them.

 

[CSimmons]

Thanks for the replies...something I was looking at doing would be purchase them in the winter months. I've got plenty of hay and ideally prices should be a little lower then. Bring them home, work them, give them time to get their condition back and get healthy, and then turn out the bull with them. Turn around and then sell them in the fall as heavy breds. As long as I keep my inputs somewhat low and buy them right then I believe I can turn around a profit.

For anyone that has done this, where you able to have decent profit margins?

Also, would the time to buy be halfway through winter when prices are lower and aim to resell the following fall? I could feel hay half the winter, and as the grass comes on I'm not having to feed them. Verses buy in late summer / fall, feel all winter long and then resell in the spring when prices typically are high. What is everyone's thoughts on this?

 

[bird dog]

They can show up at the sale barn at any time of year but more often towards the end of summer when the grass plays out. You won't see as many thin ones on years like this one where the grass was good and hay is plentiful. Late winter is a close second. You just have to be ready when you see the opportunity.

You can keep your inputs low and its probably preferable to let them recover slowly. In other words, no feed. The few that I have fooled with were added to the herd, not resold. They became cheap young cows that can produce for another 8 years. The young pair I mentioned was bought for $925. I have a few other mis-treated young cows in the $600 to $850 range. Their calves will not be the biggest at weaning time nor will they ring the bell at the sale barn but a nice 525 lb calf out of a decent bull is a pretty good return every year on a $800 initial investment.

Not all of them work out of course. I had high hopes for a thin young red angus cow I bought bred. A few months later she had a small weak calf and her teats were cucumber size and the calf was lost. Luckily packer prices are good and I will get most of my money back when she rotates back to the pen area in a couple weeks and gets a trailer ride. She may actually turn a profit since she has gained some weight and looks significantly better.

 

[SBMF 2015]

Just remember if you are trying to bring them back to a decent body condition it's probably going to take more than just hay.
Some type of concentrates will be a big help.

 

[Travlr]

Anyone have any experience purchasing young, wet bag cattle that are a little thin, putting them on feed, getting their nutrition right etc and then getting them bred?

How were your conception rates?

What did the cattle receive once you got them home and worked them?

I've always concentrated on buying cows that are culled automatically at ten years old due to age, and then keeping them as long as they raise a worthwhile calf and stay in good body condition.

But I did buy three wets because they were cheap enough one time that I thought I could come out on them. The first one that calved killed her calf immediately. The second had a nice big calf after having to be repositioned. The third I thought I would have trouble with due to small hips, but she calved just fine... and later her calf got milk scours and was too far gone by the time I found it.

Based on very limited experience I like older cows...

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Milk scours is from getting too much milk, right? When their rumens aren't developed yet too much milk flows into their intestines undigested and they have yellow scours. Is this correct? I increased the milk to my young bottle heifers too much too soon and they scoured. I gave them Re Sorb electrolytes for a few days.

 

[Travlr]

Milk scours is from getting too much milk, right? When their rumens aren't developed yet too much milk flows into their intestines undigested and they have yellow scours. Is this correct? I increased the milk to my young bottle heifers too much too soon and they scoured. I gave them Re Sorb electrolytes for a few days.

Too much or too rich... and this from an udder the size of an orange.

 

[Allenw]

Thanks for the replies...something I was looking at doing would be purchase them in the winter months. I've got plenty of hay and ideally prices should be a little lower then. Bring them home, work them, give them time to get their condition back and get healthy, and then turn out the bull with them. Turn around and then sell them in the fall as heavy breds. As long as I keep my inputs somewhat low and buy them right then I believe I can turn around a profit.

For anyone that has done this, where you able to have decent profit margins?

Also, would the time to buy be halfway through winter when prices are lower and aim to resell the following fall? I could feel hay half the winter, and as the grass comes on I'm not having to feed them. Verses buy in late summer / fall, feel all winter long and then resell in the spring when prices typically are high. What is everyone's thoughts on this?

Have you put a sharp pencil to your plan? It's not anything I've ever thought of doing. With the market right now time could be your enemy.

 

[StrojanHerefords]

What do you mean by wet bag cattle?

 

[SBMF 2015]

What do you mean by wet bag cattle?

Cows that have just been weaned and haven't gone dry yet.